Bill Nelson Concedes Florida Senate Race to Gov. Rick Scott

END OF A SAGA

Updated Nov. 18, 2018 2:15PM ET / Published Nov. 18, 2018 1:41PM ET

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Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called Florida Gov. Rick Scott to concede the state’s Senate race on Sunday. Scott released a statement to that effect, thanking Nelson and saying the incumbent senator had “graciously” conceded. The news came after the Associated Press reported that Scott was set to win the race with a lead of about 10,000 votes following a manual recount. Scott had been locked in a close race against Nelson, who trailed behind by several thousand votes. A recount was ordered in the contentious race last week when late vote counting revealed a margin small enough to legally require it. After the recount, Scott’s lead dropped by 2,570 votes, but he still had a margin of victory of 0.12 percentage points. Nelson’s camp said earlier Sunday that he would give a statement at 3 p.m.